Hundreds of educators and parents descended upon the Minneapolis School District headquarters Tuesday, March 12, to continue their pushback against proposed budget cuts.
The rally took place a week after MPS shared its proposed budget cuts after revealing a $110 million deficit for the Fiscal Year 2025. In order to adjust, the district proposed reallocating resources and making cuts that would affect fifth grade music, classroom sizes, assistant principal positions, and more.
MPS leaders cite the end of federal COVID-19 dollars, declining enrollment, and increased costs as the reasons behind the deficit.
Representatives from the teacher’s union have met with the district over a dozen times to secure increased pay to meet the demands in their classroom. Their opening offer to the district was an 8.5 percent salary increase for the first year of their next contract followed by a 7.5 percent increase.
Kim Ambers attended the rally donning a blue MFT59 shirt representing the local union for teachers and educators. Ambers has worked as an education support professional for over 30 years in the district, first at North Star Elementary School before transferring to her current position at Lucy Laney Elementary. She shared her perspective on the changes in the district.
“Everything has gotten worse, including the fact that the district every year says that they don’t have money to pay their workers, the ones who are working in the school specifically, but yet at the end of the year they always have a surplus,” she said.
Ambers stated that the current moment was crucial for the sustainability of the district and the success of educators. “I think right now, this is make it or break it,” she said. “Minneapolis is going to have to step up to the plate, pay their employees, the people who do the work in the school buildings.”
Anna Miller, a school counselor at Jenny Lind Elementary School, was also in attendance at the rally holding up a sign in support of mental health resources in school. She underlined the importance of having resources to support students from marginalized communities who have shown signs of mental distress.
“I’m here today because 47 percent of students in Minnesota have had an adverse child experience,” she stated. “The reality of my position is that I have done suicide risk monitoring for students in first and second grade this year. We have families who are homeless. We have families who do not have water at home.”
She noted how stress is known to impact learning and that several students she works with have challenging home lives. They need the resources in school to provide the support they require to be successful in school.
The rally then moved inside the district headquarters as school board members began their meeting. Superintendent Dr. Lisa Sayles-Adams began the public meeting with an apology and clarification relating to the proposed cuts to the district’s heritage language programs.
“No reductions to the central office district program facilitator positions that support the Somali and Hmong language pathways or the biliteracy seals programs will be included in our proposed budget,” she said. “This specific item should not have been an option, given the history, the nature of the program, and the already limited funding it has.” The superintendent apologized for the confusion and distress caused by the proposed cuts and offered to repair the harm caused by the mistake.
Sondra Samuels, president and CEO of the Northside Achievement Zone, addressed the district leaders during the public comment section of the meeting. She requested that any further cuts or decisions not be made without consideration of the Northside community, particularly Black families in the district.
“I want to also ask you to really consider that equality is not the same as racial equity,” she said. “So cutting APs, cutting mental health, all of that from the North Side when we have been so pummeled by COVID is absolutely disastrous.”
Titilayo Bediako, executive director of We Win Institute, also took to the podium to address MPS leadership about the proposed budget cuts, but she pushed back against the increased wages for educators. She suggested that there should be results in student performances that could support the cause for increased pay.
“I was a teacher. I’m not opposed to teachers getting raises,” she said. “We went through this two years ago. I want teachers to show me what they did in those two years. How come we’re still talking about 17 percent failure in relationship to our children? Let’s not talk about raises and talk about 17 percent reading rates at the same time.”
The district plans to spend its March 26. meeting discussing the budget further.
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